San Juan, Orcas, Shaw, and Lopez islands beckon to visitors sailing aboard the Washington State Ferries from Anacortes, WA and Sidney, BC, Canada on Vancouver Island year around, with the exception of no ferry service from Canada during the cold winter months.
Sail or fly into the San Juan Islands of Washington State and you are immediately struck by the rugged beauty of the archipelago’s shoreline. Twice daily tides, sometimes rising 13 feet, splash the 479 miles (769 km) of rocky headlands and pebble shell beaches of approximately 400 islands, 128 with names. Overhanging Madrona trees, their gnarled trunks encircled in ochre bark, fringe snug harbors and open coves where harbor seals snatch salmon for supper. Black Oystercatchers pluck a banquet of mussels, limpets, and chitons from nearby reefs with their bright red beaks. And people from all walks of life come to enjoy the slower-paced lifestyle, afoot or afloat, in God’s creation.
